I live in a town with a lot of humidity in summer. I perspire a lot, but restaurants around here have misters outdoors to “cool things down”. How does that work? How can adding more humidity make the heat more tolerable?
In: 340
Water evaporates and takes heat with it.
If it is too humid, water can’t evaporate to take heat with it.
If it’s not too humid, spraying people puts water on them… Which evaporates taking heat with it.
People feel cooler if heat is being effectively removed.
Evaporation of water from a surface (like skin) cools the surface down. Humidity is water (as a gas) is in the air. The more water there is in the air already, the harder it is for water to evaporate into the air. A mister doesn’t add much water to the air as a gas, but it is sprinkling tiny droplets of liquid water around, which gets surfaces wet, then the water evaporates and cools the surfaces.
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